Why the UK is first for film and TV production

I head up the British Film Commission – the organisation charged with bringing major productions to the UK and supporting them while they’re here – and we are quite simply one of the best places in the world to make film and TV. But don’t just take my word for it, the figures speak for themselves.

2016 was a true banner year for film and TV production in the UK, with inward investment generating a record-breaking £1.35 billion – the highest figure since records began, and a 17.5% increase on the previous year. High-end television – those big, epic, blockbuster box sets that we all love so much – also generated a record amount, hitting £478 million of inward investment spend.

Titles contributing to this success include the likes of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Transformers: The Last Knight, Game Of Thrones, The Crown, Outlander and Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One. While they’ll surely thrill audiences around the world – or continue to do so, in terms of the returning TV series – they also provide a tremendous boost to the UK’s creative ecology and economy.

The UK is perfectly placed to serve the global film industry, offering filmmakers the ‘full package’ in terms of talent, infrastructure, locations and financial incentives.

The UK’s generous and reliable creative sector tax reliefs underpin the success of our screen industries, providing one of most competitive fiscal incentive programmes in the world and helping unlock private revenue and capital expenditure.

Our screen industries also benefit from a top-flight physical infrastructure across the UK’s regions and nations, with the likes of Pinewood, 3 Mills, Elstree, the Bottle Yard, Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden and Titanic Studios all hosting major film and TV projects.

Alongside purpose-built facilities and studios, the UK is a draw in and of itself. Our coastlines, forests and fields often take centre stage, while our inner city settings and historic stately homes help filmmakers tell stories of every style. Indeed, such is our versatility that the keen observers among you might see UK locations doubling for cities as diverse as Miami and Moscow.

This ability to adapt to meet the needs of a filmmaker’s vision is bolstered by our visual effects (VFX) and post-production expertise, which ranks among the best in the world.  Our VFX studios and the state-of-the-art technology they offer help filmmakers create characters, environments and galaxies with such infinite skill that some productions – The Martian or Pacific Rim: Uprising, for instance – will choose to make the UK their VFX destination of choice even if films’ stars never set foot in the UK itself. Indeed, British teams have been nominated for the Acadamy Award in VFX in 11 of the last 12 and winning six times – most recently last year for Ex Machina.

The fact that our acting talent is so highly regarded will come as no surprise, but the UK also boasts a tremendous breadth of award-winning skill behind the camera as well. Our writers, directors and producers are in constant demand, and our craftspeople, costumiers and sound engineers are recognised as being among the most talented in the world.

All of this, of course, is supported by the work of the British Film Commission itself, which offers dedicated support, guidance and advice for films and TV productions wanting to make use of the UK’s superlative offer. If you want to find out more, visit www.britishfilmcommission.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @filminuk_BFC.